I am going to brew a new recipe for me, Hoegaarden Wit. I searched for recipes and found one that I think will work. Along with other ingredients, it calls for .5 lb cracked unmalted wheat, and .5 lb rolled (flaked) oats. I have the oats, and my homebrew store recommended flaked wheat instead of cracked (I trust them). The question I have is don't the oats and wheat need to be mashed? Or is this little amount just in there for flavor? I've never mashed before, but may get into it soon....not planning on doing it here with only a pound of material....thoughts?

It needs to be converted, but you could probably get away with a simple partial mash. If you "steep" that pound with a pound of 2-row malt (Pilsner Malt might be ideal) in 1 gallon of water at ~150°F for 1 hour, you should get conversion. If you want, you can rinse the bag of malt in another gallon of water at less than 170°F.

A 1 or maybe a 5 gallon paint strainer bag ($1-2 at a hardware store) might be better suited to this amount of grain than a usual steeping bag.

I appreciate the suggestion. The reason why I am questioning my recipe is because it is just from another brewer apparently. I will be using malt in the boil. But the recipe calls for steeping the oats and wheat for 30 minutes then take out and add the DME/LME as usual to start the 60 min boil. Is what you're saying, maybe just leave the bag in for the entire boil to get the conversion? Again, thanks for the help!

No, those grains aren't malted, so they don't contain the enzymes needed to convert the starch to sugar. The result will be starch in the final beer. Boiling the grain will just add more starch and won't convert any starch. I suggested adding a diastatic malt, like Pilsner Malt, which contains the enzymes needed to convert the starch, but then you would need to hold them at close to 150F +/- 5F for about 60 minutes at around 1 - 2.5 quarts per pound, to allow for that conversion. This is called a partial- or mini-mash.

Some brewers intentionally add unconverted starch to Wits to make sure the beer comes out cloudy, which may have been what the original brewer intended. Both of those grains are very mildly flavored even when mashed, so you probably won't get much for flavor from them, I wouldn't think, but I've never tried it.